


Lord of the Flies

by AlyxJamieRae



Category: Lord of the Flies - William Golding, The Wilds (TV 2020)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, a little fluff at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:02:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28580169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyxJamieRae/pseuds/AlyxJamieRae
Summary: Shelby remembers a story her dad had her read once and decides that the situation herself and the girl's find themselves currently in is eerily similar.
Relationships: Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe
Comments: 13
Kudos: 130





	Lord of the Flies

**Author's Note:**

> All right's to the show, I don't own any of the characters, I am just borrowing them for the fun of this fic! 
> 
> The shark attack never happened, Leah doesn't suspect Nora, their all still on the island, but this is set after s1.

40 day's had now past since the girl's got stranded on the island, they were all giving up hope that they would actually be rescued at this point. Moral was low, they had managed to find a goatherd after Martha had killed the one, they all figured there couldn't be just one goat on the whole island. They had managed to construct a makeshift pen to hold the goat's and were thrilled to find that they had two male's and three females so far, they just had to figure out how to breed them, and they would have a hopefully endless supply of meat. 

Figuring they would be on the island indefinitely they had constructed more perminate housing, they had made four lean-to's so they could all pair up and have some semblance of privacy. They had built them around the fire, with the opening's facing towards their source of heat. 

After filling their bellies' with goat meat and lychee berries, the girl's were all sat around the fire, enjoying the warmth in the evening cold. The sun had not long set beyond the horizon, with the last light from the sun, bought the cold wind's of the night to their little home. 

"How about a little icebreaker?" Shelby cheerily called out to the girl's, who in turn all groaned and shook their heads. "Or not." She sighed and glanced to where Toni was sitting with Martha at the entrance to their lean-to.

Toni had suggested to Shelby, that she would bunk with Martha, so as not to bring attention to the budding relationship between them, and while Shelby greatly appreciated the gesture, she also really would rather be sharing a 'home' with Toni than with Dot. Not that she didn't like Dot's company, but since her little outburst about being gay being a sin, none of the girl's, beside Toni and Fatin, had been on good terms with Shelby. 

She sighed and wrapped her arms around her legs as she looked out across the water. "Now I know how Ralph felt." That got everyone's attention, as suddenly all eyes were on Shelby. 

"Who's Ralph?" Martha questioned. 

"Have any of you read _Lord of the Flies_?" Shelby lay her chin on her arm's as everyone shook their heads in her direction. It might not have been the ice breaker she had in mind, but at least the girl's were listening to her, not shutting her out. "It's a story about how in the mist of a wartime evacuation, a British aeroplane crashes on an isolated island." 

"Well shit, that's like us." Toni spoke up. "Still, who's Ralph?" 

Shelby rolled her eyes at her. "If you'd let me continue, Toni, I could explain who Ralph is." Shelby sat up, preparing to tell the girl's the story of Lord of the Flies. 

"The only survivors of the plane crash were a group of young preadolescent boys, Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, twin Sam and Eric, and Roger are the only named boy's in the story, it's unclear how many actually survived. Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell, which Ralph uses as a horn to convene all the survivors to one area." 

"Ralph is optimistic, believing that grownups will come and rescue them but Piggy realises the need to organise. Because Ralph appears responsible for bringing all the survivors together, he immediately commands some authority over the other boys and is quickly elected their 'chief'." 

Rachel scoffed and rolled her eyes. "If anyone here is Ralph, it's Dot, not you, Shelby. She's the one that bought us together, and took charge." 

"I wasn't claiming to be Ralph, I just know how he feels later on in the story, as of now, I have no idea how Ralph feel's, because like you said, I'm not in charge." Shelby bit back at Rachel, she was getting fed up of the girl's giving her the cold shoulder, but still, the idea of them knowing about her still filled her with dread. She took a deep breath and continued with the story. 

"Ralph didn't Receive the votes from the members of the boy's choir. Led by Jack, they formed their own clique of hunters. Ralph establishes three primary policies: to have fun, to survive, and to constantly maintain a smoke signal that could alert passing ships to the boys stranded on the island, leading to their rescue." 

"The boys establish a form of democracy by declaring that whoever holds the conch shall also be able to speak at their formal gatherings and everyone else will be quite while they talk." 

"Jack decides that his little tribe will be in charge of hunting and providing a food source. Ralph, Jack, and another boy called Simon take the lead and form a loose triumvirate of leaders, with Ralph as the ultimate authority. After looking around the island, they find that their source of food is fruit and wild pigs." 

Nora had been writing in her journal, while listening to Shelby and suddenly spoke up. "Why was Ralph in charge, if it was Jack that was responsible for food? Surely he should be the one in charge, since having a food source is rather important to survival." 

Shelby smiled softly at Nora, even though she interrupted the story, it was with an intelligent question, and not to ridicule Shelby. "I suppose it was because Ralph was the one to bring the boys together in the first place." Nora nodded and went back to writing in her journal. 

"They create a fire using Piggy's glasses, and make sure to keep it burning, in the hope of being rescued sooner rather than later. Being young, the boys soon start to make an outcast of Piggy, and he becomes the butt of the other boys jokes. Simon, while helping to construct shelters, also feels the need to protect the younger boys of the group." 

"Most of the boys turn idle, they would rather be having fun than building shelters. They develop paranoia's about the island, the main one being a supposed monster they call ' _The Beast_ '. Ralph insists that the beast isn't real, while Jack declares that he will kill the beast to try and gain a level of control over the boys. Jack ultimately calls for a hunt for the beast, drawing the boys away from the fire. A ship passes by, but without the smoke signal, it sails on and the boys aren't rescued, much to the dismay of Ralph, who angrily confronts Jack about his failure to keep the signal going." 

"In frustration, Jack attacks Piggy, breaking one of the lenses of his glasses. Frustrated, Ralph considers giving up control, but Piggy convinces him to keep being the leader of the group." 

Rachel once again speaks up. "Again, that's like Dot, when she got frustrated with us, she wanted to give up on us. I'm still not seeing how or why you would feel like Ralph. I wouldn't say you sounded like any of those boys." 

Shelby turned to look at Rachel. "If you don't want me to continue with the story, just say and I'll stop. Other wise, let me continue." 

Rachel just waived her hand in Shelby's direction, effectively telling her to continue with the story. Despite not understanding how Shelby could see herself as anything like Ralph, Rachel was enjoying the distraction to their situation, even if they story was similar in some ways to their predicament. 

"One night while the boys sleep, an aerial battle occurs, during which, a pilot ejects from his plane and dies on the descent. His body and parachute both get tangled in a tree near the top of the mountain. The twin's, Sam and Eric, now assigned to maintain with signal fire, see the corpse of the pilot and parachute in the dark, they mistake the corpse for the beast and run to the cluster of shelters to warn the others." 

"This raises the tension between Jack and Ralph. Jack decides to lead a party to the other side of the island, where a mountain of stones, later called Castle Rock, forms a place where he claims the beast resides. Only Ralph, and a quiet boy called Roger go with Jack. Ralph turn's back before the other two boys, but all eventually see the parachutist, whose head rises via the wind." 

"Now all believing the beast is real, Jack calls an assembly and tries to turn the other boys against Ralph. He initially receives no support and storms off alone to form his own tribe. Roger follows after him and slowly an increasing number of the older boys abandon Ralph to join Jack's tribe. Jack lures more and more boys to his tribe with the promise of cooked pig." 

"The boys of Jack's tribe begin to paint their faces and enact bizarre rites, including sacrifices to the beast. One night Ralph and Piggy decide to go to one of Jack's feasts." 

Shelby pauses for a moment, knowing where the story leads next. "Simon had found himself a hideaway from the rest of them on the island. One day while he's there, Jack and his followers erect an offering to the beast nearby: a pig's head, mounted on a sharpened stick and soon swarming with scavenging flies. Simon conducts an imaginary dialogue with the head, dubbing it the 'Lord of the Flies.'"

"The head mocks Simon's notion that the beast is a real entity, and reveals the truth: the boys are the beast; it's inside them all. The Lord of the Flies also warns Simon that he is in danger, because he represents the soul of man, and predicts that the others will kill him. Simon goes alone to the mountain, where he discovers the dead parachutist. He rushes down to the others to inform them of what he discovered. The others, engaged in a ritual dance, mistake Simon for the beast and attack him, beating him to death." 

Martha shuddered at the image of a group of young boys beating to death another. "Let's promise that we'll stick together and keep each other all sane. We've already had one death on this island, and I don't want to have to bury any more of us." She said sombrely to the group, who all nodded in agreement. 

Shelby reached across to Martha and squeezed her hand in reassurance before continuing with the story. "Jack and his rebel band decide that the real symbol of power on the island is not the conch, but Piggy's glasses - the only means the boys have of starting a fire. They raid Ralph's camp, confiscate the glasses, and return to their abode on Castle Rock."

"Ralph, now abandoned by most of his supporters, goes to Castle Rock to confront Jack and get back the glasses. He takes with him the conch and is joined by Piggy, Sam, and Eric. Ralph demands the glasses back once they reach Castle Rock, and proving that he has been abandoned by all the other boys, they capture the twins and bind them under Jack's command. Ralph and Jack start a fight, which neither wins before Piggy tries to once more address the tribe."

"All sense of order and safety is permanently destroyed when Roger, now sadistic, deliberately drops a boulder from his vantage point above, killing Piggy and shattering the conch. Ralph manages to escape, but Sam and Eric are tortured by Roger until they agree to join Jack's tribe." 

"Ralph secretly confronts Sam and Eric, who warn him that Jack and Roger hate him and that Roger has sharpened a stick at both ends, intimating that the tribe intends to hunt him like a pig and behead him." Shelby draws her knees back to herself and wraps her arms back around them as she talks, looking down to the fire, instead of looking at the girls as she had been. 

She knows that the girls would never actual want to kill her, like Jack and Roger wanted to kill Ralph, but she also knows that she's not on the best of terms with all the girls at the moment, apart from Fatin and Toni, the only other two that know about who she really is and her feeling that are developing for Toni. 

"We're not going to kill you, Shelby. You just can't have the views you do while your stuck here with us all." Dot was the one to speak up this time. Shelby was thankful it wasn't Rachel, she was beginning to get to the end of her tether with the barbs from her. 

Shelby lifted her head to look back at the girls who were all looking at her. She opened her mouth to tell them the truth, but the words get stuck in her throat, she was terrified after kissing Toni, and terrified when Fatin pointed out that she knew about them. She wasn't ashamed, just as she'd told Toni, she just couldn't say the words out loud, so she decided to continue with the last part of the story. 

"Jack ordered his tribe to begin a hunt for Ralph. They set fire to the forest while Ralph desperately weighs his options for survival. Following a long chase, most of the island is consumed in flames. With the hunters closely behind him, Ralph trips and falls. He looks up at a uniformed adult - a British naval officer whose party had landed after seeing the fire. Ralph bursts into tears over the death of Piggy, and the 'end of innocence.' Jack and the other boys, filthy and unkempt, also revert to their true ages and erupt into sobs." 

There's a pause as Shelby get's to the end of the story. "In the end, the boys are rescued, I'm sure it was a very traumatic experience for them, but they got home safely, which is more than I can say for us at the moment. It seems like we'll never go home." 

The girls all yawned at the end of Shelby's story, no one had realized just how dark it had got since the start of the story. "Well, that was a lovely bedtime story." Dot said sarcastically. 

They all laughed lightly and smiled. Even though it looked bleak for them, they still had some hope that they would get home sometime soon. Though Shelby selfishly hoped that they didn't get rescued, she didn't know if she was strong enough to tell her parents the truth, especially if she didn't have Toni by her side. 

Thinking of Toni, Shelby glanced at her, neither of them had really talked about what would happened if and when they were rescued, Shelby just assumed that she would be going back to her family and Toni would go back with Martha and that would be that. 

Shelby got lost in her own thought's as the girl's all settled down for the night, she was on fire duty that night so, it didn't matter that she made no move to get comfortable for the night. Instead, she stepped away from the lean-to she shared with Dot, so as not to disturb the other girl in the night while she slept. Shelby moved to be sitting in front of the fire, looking out over the ocean. 

Through out the night, Shelby got lost in her own head, thinking about what would happen when they got back to civilization, wondering if Toni and Martha would mind if she tagged along with them. She was beginning to really like the person she was becoming while on the island. 

The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon when Shelby felt someone sit down next to her. She looked to her right and smiled softly at seeing Toni, messy hair from sleeping. "Hi." She spoke softly. 

"Hey." Toni smiled at Shelby. "Do you really think we wont get rescued?" She questioned softly. 

"I think the longer were here, the less likely it is that we will get rescued." Shelby answered honestly. "Is it wrong to hope that we don't get rescued?" She had thought long about everything all night, and decided that if they do get rescued, she wasn't going back to her family, even if Toni and Martha didn't want her tagging along with them, she would find her own feet. 

"Nah, I think you of all people have the right to not want to go back to your homophobic, bible bashing family, Shelby." Toni yawned and stretched her arms over her head. "Though, if we do get rescued, you don't have to go back to them you know, you could always join me and Martha." Toni spoke as she watched the waves crash on the shore, nervous about Shelby's reply. 

"You mean that?" Shelby smiled wide at the idea of being with Toni off of the island. 

"Of course. You shouldn't have to live in that environment. They shouldn't make you feel ashamed of who you are, Shelby. You deserve to be happy and who you want to be." 

Shelby couldn't find the words to tell Toni just what that meant to her, so she did the next best thing. She closed the distance between them, not caring that she could hear the others waking up, and that they could see them. If they didn't get rescued, they would find out about her and Toni soon enough, and if they did get rescued, Toni had just given her the best reason to not hide who she is, no fear of being sent away by her father, no fear of what he would think of her. She could be happy. 

She poured everything into the kiss, only breaking away to laugh when she heard a shout from Dot "I fucking knew it!" That got the attention of everyone else, who looked to where Dot was looking, just catching Toni and Shelby leaning away from each other. "I knew all that God crap couldn't just be because you really believe that shit, but because you were so far repressed." 

"I suppose you'll want to swap with Martha to be able to share a lean-to with Toni now right?" Dot didn't give Shelby a chance to answer as she looked to Martha. "Guess your my new roomie." 

Shelby just laughed had hid her face in the crook of Toni's neck. "Is that okay with you?" She whispered softly to Toni, not wanting to presume that Toni would want to share with her. 

"More than." Toni replied as she dropped a kiss to the top of Shelby's head. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea if American's learn about Lord of the Flies, but it's something I learnt about in my secondary English class, and since watching The Wilds, the idea of one of the girl's knowing about the story wouldn't leave my mind. 
> 
> All the information about LotF in this fic, are just what I can remember about it from school, which isn't much, since I learnt about it about ten years ago now, and what I could find out about online from google.
> 
> Also, this is the most dialogue riddled fic I have ever written, so if it seems too much, I am so sorry! I normally do like one or two lines of dialogue, never this much! All the mistakes(I'm sure there are plenty) are mine, this is not betaed or anything!


End file.
